Nutritional formulas or compositions can be, for instance, infant formulas or also nutritional liquids for toddlers, invalids, elderly people, humans having nutritional deficiencies and/or having a deficient immune system or athletes.
In general, different forms in which nutritional compositions may be provided exist, each of them having their own advantages.
For instance, although the nutritional composition provided in a powder form have a relative high nutritional quality, the preparation thereof may be regarded as inconvenient and time consuming, since powder has to be provided in correct amount to a drinking vessel. In addition, water that has been boiled in advanced and allowed to cool has to be poured into said vessel containing the powder in order to prepare a liquid nutritional composition such as an infant formula. The same inconvenient preparation process exists for nutritional compositions that are provided in concentrated liquid form.
As an alternative, single-serving solutions are known which enable to provide a predefined amount of comestible product to a consumer.
WO2009/083495 for example relates to a packaging for a consumable articles such as a comestible product or medicine, that comprises a container including an amount of the consumable article necessary for a single use, wherein the container is provided at one end thereof with an opening being surrounded by a rigid skirt adapted for being connected to a liquid container such as a bottle. Opening means of the container enable to mix the consumable article of the container with liquid provided within the bottle.
A more convenient preparation of a nutritional composition is enabled by capsule-based preparation devices in which a single-serving of a preferably powdered composition being provided within a cartridge or capsule is dissolved by means of injection with filtered respectively sanitized liquid such as water. Thereby, any undesired contaminants should be removed from the liquid before the liquid is mixed with the ingredients. For this purpose, such a device preferably comprises filter means for filtering respectively sanitizing the water.
In recent development, capsules with integrated antimicrobial filter have been introduced into the market in order to ensure the provision of filtered respectively sanitized liquid to the capsule for the preparation of the nutritional composition.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,733,669B1 relates to a multi-use water filter bottle comprising a top member and a bottom member threadedly connected having a filtering material therebetween; the top member having a water inlet for filling the bottle with unfiltered water and a water outlet for dispensing water from the bottle. Such bottle is not adapted for providing a safe delivery of an aqueous nutritional composition such as an infant formula composition. In particular, there is no separation between the incoming water and filtered water. Therefore, filtered water can be spoiled by contact with the incoming water before being dispensed. This solution is not acceptable to meet the hygiene level required for infant formula delivery.
WO2009/092629A1 for example relates to a capsule for use in a beverage production device, the capsule containing ingredients for producing a nutritional liquid when a liquid is fed into the capsule at an inlet face thereof, the capsule being provided with an anti-microbial filter.
WO2010/128051A1 relates to a capsule for preparing a nutritional product including a filter adapted for removing contaminants wherein the filter is formed of a filter unit which comprises a filter membrane and an outlet wall for supporting the filter membrane; the outlet wall comprising at least one liquid outlet communicating with the compartment.
A drawback with the known capsule-based preparation devices is the cleaning and sterilizing of the baby bottle that is to be carried out after each and/or before each preparation of the beverage. Thereby, the user is not always aware or informed of the necessary cleaning and sterilizing procedures of the baby bottle which may lead to safety concerns.
Another drawback comes from the fact that the release of a reconstituted liquid composition from a capsule requires a complete dissolution or dispersion of the ingredients/formula with the diluents (e.g. ambient or warm water) to ensure a reliable and complete release of the resulting composition from the capsule to the serving bottle.
Therefore, a more convenient solution is sought-after which overcomes these problems.
In particular, it is desirable to reduce a necessary cleaning and sterilizing procedure during the preparation of a nutritional composition to a minimum extent.
A solution is also sought-after which enables a facilitated storage and the enhanced release of a predefined amount of nutritional composition. Thereby, a full release of the dedicated amount of the nutritional composition contained in the storage medium is desired to ensure a complete feed to the consumer.
The present invention seeks to address the above-described problems. The invention also aims at other objects and particularly the solution of other problems as will appear in the rest of the present description.